Does 720p “look” vastly different when cut into 1080i Sequence?

[Shane Ross]

[Steve Clarendon] “What is the procedure for cutting 720p footage into a 1080i sequence on Media Composer 5.5?”

Import/capture the footage in a 720p project. Then copy the bins over to a 1080i project.

[Steve Clarendon] “Should that footage be transcoded or can the Avid handle mixing these on the fly?”

Handled on the fly…very well. Mixed frame rates are not a problem. They will come in with a green dot (visible on the timeline) that is a Motion Adator effect. You can promote this effect to Time Warp and adjust how you want the footage to be interpreted. Set it right and it will look great. It defaults to breaking progressive up into interlaced fields, so if your sequence is 1080i…then it will look fine.

[Steve Clarendon] “Will this footage look radically different when cut into 1080i?”

If 720p24…yes, it will have the “film look.” If 720p60…no, not really. Might be slightly soft due to the need to be enlarged 50%.

[Steve Clarendon] “Will there be noticeable change in image quality?
“

Yeah…but not as major as you might think. Still best to convert with a Terranex, but if you can’t afford it, this will do fine. Better to upconvert with hardware when you capture though…if you can.

[Steve Clarendon] “Are there any other implications?”

You cannot open the sequence on any version of Media Composer or Symphony prior to 4…just had that issue trying to online with a Symphony 3.5…the “motion adaptive” properties of the mixed frame rates is a newer filter invented for version 4.

[Steve Clarendon] “Will the Avid get hung up on this?”

Not at all.

Shane

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[Steve]

Thanks Shane! Extremely helpful.